Guest Room Sessions: Mary Bragg, ‘Wreck and Ruin’

Americana singer-songwriter Mary Bragg teamed up with her friend and co-writer Becky Warren for The Boot's newest Guest Room Sessions installment. Readers can press play above to watch the two artists give a special performance of their song "Wreck and Ruin."

Filmed in a cobbler's shop on a rainy day, Bragg and Warren's Guest Room Sessions video location is a perfect accompaniment to "Wreck and Ruin." The song is "a magical place where being imperfect is celebrated," a message that Bragg likens to the new life that boots receive after being re-soled by a cobbler.

"I chose "Wreck and Ruin" for this video specifically because of how quickly I could see [Warren and myself] singing it in a workshop," Bragg tells The Boot. "When I write, I often think about what the music video for a song would look like, and for this song, places like shoe-repair shops and second-hand stores are totally in the video.”

Bragg selected Warren as her Guest Room Sessions collaborator because they wrote "Wreck and Ruin" together and collaborate often." Bragg says that Warren was "my instantaneous choice."

"She's an absolutely brilliant writer," Bragg boasts of Warren, "and it's a pleasure to have her in my orbit.”

In 2016, Warren released her critically acclaimed album War Surplus; the project was inspired by her now ex-husband, an Iraq War veteran struggling with PTSD. Bragg, meanwhile, released her newest project, Lucky Strike -- on which "Wreck and Ruin" appears -- in May.